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DWARF has a clever (too clever?) VM representation for source line to asm mapping. | |
VM has state which represents virtual program and source line counters. | |
The DW_LNS_advance_pc instruction advances the program counter while the DW_LNS_advance_line instruction | |
advances the line counter. Both these instructions encode the "advance amount" value as a variably sized immediate operand. | |
The DW_LNS_copy instructions tells us that current VM pc and source counter states correspond together | |
both counter values can be copied to a array of line numbers and assembly addresses. When the VM reads a byte from the | |
instruction stream it compares this value with a VM specified "opcode base" variable. If the value is below the "opcode base" | |
then it represents an opcode for an instruction. If the value is above the "opcode base" then it represents the operand for | |
an implicit "instruction". This special implicit "instruction" advances both the program and source line counters at once | |
using this single byte value. But how can you represent both advancement values in one byte ? | |
Simplified - Imagine a 16x16 (sqrt(256) = 16) square grid where each cell unqiuely contains a value from 0-255 (left to right then down - like a book). | |
You can think of this value as a coordinate in the grid. Using this value you can find the position of the x and y axis | |
in grid for this value. E.g. x = (value % 16), y = (value / 16). These "x and y" values are the advancement amounts for | |
the program and source line counters. By using this special "instruction" for the majority of cases it can save alot of | |
space as we encode the operation of the DW_LNS_advance_line, DW_LNS_advance_pc and DW_LNS_copy instructions in a single | |
byte. For cases where the advancement amount does not fit within a byte you can always use the explicit instructions. |
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